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Strategic energy management built in from the ground up for BC Housing

For many years now, BC Housing has had energy efficiency embedded at a foundational level in its design guidelines and standards.

"A project undergoes an energy study before we even start designing it," explains Bill MacKinnon, BC Housing's manager of energy management. "This eliminates those incremental costs you get when you try to tack on efficiency measures halfway through. It saves time and money by establishing consistency."

How does this help with affordability? MacKinnon says it allows homes to be built or renovated to be as 'green' as possible, while delivering them in the most cost-efficient way possible. Using strategic energy management – where energy efficiency is prioritized at every stage of a project – allows operating costs for those homes to stay low.

MacKinnon is particularly proud of the innovation being demonstrated at BC Housing's Merritt Passive House pilot project and is hoping it will show the construction industry how strategic energy management can be incorporated in projects of their own.

"We know we're not going to meet long term energy targets building to the current building code minimum. Aiming higher now is like creating a road map for others to follow in the years ahead."